Airline staff at Dubai airport steals Dh162,000 by tampering with ticket prices

An airline employee at the Dubai International Airport has been charged for allegedly embezzling over Dh162,000 selling and upgrading travel tickets. He allegedly forged as many as 36 ticket purchase e-receipts.

The Court of First Instance heard how the 30-year-old Syrian employee tampered with e-data and forged the bills made by customers against the tickets. He would put lower amounts in the books and embezzle the difference.

The salesman, who is referred to as a public employee in the public prosecution charge sheet, is accused of embezzlement of public funds, forgery of e-documents and the use of forged e-documents. He admitted in court that he sold tickets at higher prices.

The wrongdoings ran over the span of a year starting from September 2018.

"The defendant has been working as a salesman for the airline since 2016. The case came to light on September 9, 2019. When going over the transactions done by the defendant, we noticed that he was sometimes selling the tickets at high prices (higher than the real ones) but putting other amounts in the e-system and later embezzling the difference," said a Lebanese security controller working with the airline.

"The salesman embezzled amounts totaling Dh162,155 while issuing 27 travel tickets. He would either sell the tickets at a high price and embezzle the difference, or pocket the fee for upgrading in class, or the airport tax on tickets, or the penalty for changing the travel date."

During police interrogation and public prosecution investigation, the accused admitted to the charges. He recounted that his doings were discovered in September 2019 and told his workplace that he was going through hard financial conditions. He expressed willingness to pay back the amounts he misappropriated and to work on a settlement with the airline.

The defendant remains in detention pending his trial that will continue on March 15.

mary@khaleejtimes.com

Marie Nammour

mary@khaleejtimes.com